Two Times Four [socs]

Far be it from me to criticize such a colossally successful writer such as Dean Koontz, but I gotta be honest… I gave the last book I read of his (The Other Emily) only 2 stars. Sure, it was “exciting” as his plots often are, but ugh. If you’re gonna write about an impossible thing, you can’t just gloss over the details, and you especially should not “fade to black” at the climax. What the crap is that? I felt like I was staring at that cartoon where one side of the board is filled with a bunch of math and the other side says “and then a miracle occurred.” Yep, Dean relied on the miracle to make his story work instead of explaining to us how the future humans, who were sort of aliens, time-traveled and created a new Emily. I am so done with him (which I have said before, I know).

But he’s not the only one. I read 2 books by Colleen Hoover this month and gave them both 2 stars. They were about evil women who ruined a man’s life, and, like the Emily book, they also suffered from crazy situations that Hoover failed to adequately explain. In Verity, a mentally ill wife/writer who has murdered her daughters convinces everyone, including the best doctors, that she’s a vegetable, while she plots revenge against hubby and his new love. How did she fake her own X-rays of her brain? Oh, let’s not dwell on that! In Layla, the soul of an insane, murderous ex somehow takes over the body of a guy’s new girlfriend, he finds a ghost helper on the internet, they figure out a way to switch the real soul back in, etc. It’s all preposterous, not to mention vaguely disturbing that a writer is so fixated on the evil woman theme with no real acknowledgement that these men were no prize. I’m done with Hoover as well.

I gave The Singing Trees by Boo Walker 2 stars also. It just went on and on, churning up ridiculous drama over nothing. Every character was absurd. I toyed with giving it only one star, but then I felt guilty. I did read the whole thing, but that shouldn’t be the deciding factor. I have quit many books before I hit the 10% read mark, and those I don’t rate at all. Not that my reviews probably mean much, since I rarely write anything these days in the body of the review, but I keep track of the stars in my spreadsheet where I list all the books I read. Is that OCD? Well, how else will I know when I hit 100 books for the year (up to 85, thank you)? I no longer belong to Goodreads because of all the spam and garbage I received there.

Anyway, it’s time to get tougher with my ratings on these Kindle Unlimited books. Beware! The one-star ratings are near!

~*~

Image is mine. Written for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

PCF5: Possibility

The possibility seemed endless
When I gazed into the lake’s foggy mirror
And saw a face filled with love.

But what do I know of love,
Shape-shifting in a misty grey mirror,
While loneliness remains endless?

I search for perfection in the mirror;
Reflections of ghosts float on endless,
But I never see a glimmer of love.

Endless mirror, haunting my dreams, never reveals the love that I need.

~*~

Welcome to my Friday afternoon paint chip prompt. There are other paint chip prompts out there, but they’re very precise in what they ask for. Mine is open ~ write a poem, a story, a memory, whatever you like. Take your inspiration this week from Valspar’s “possibility” and/or “foggy mirror.” Tag your post Paint Chip Friday, or PCF, if you wish. Prompt will continue until December 31.

Poetry form is a tritina. Image is from Pixabay.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

Connector

Art imitates cat

Cat contemplates empty space

Space gives way to art

~*~

Image is mine. Poetry form is haiku. Written for Eugi’s Weekly Prompt.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

TJ’s Lemonade Cupcakes [repost]

For a while now, I’ve pretended not to notice that Trader Joe’s has been deliberately and wantonly tempting me to buy their luscious-looking pink and yellow lemonade cupcakes sneakily displayed in the dessert section, where naturally I would have to see them. And you know what they say about temptation: the easiest way to get rid of it is just to give in to it already, and so today I did that.

They’re very pretty, no frills cupcakes. No sprinkles or doodads adorn these treats. Just cake and frosting, fin.

The cake is surprisingly dense ~ this is not light and fluffy party cake, my peeps. It has a heavy texture, almost muffin-like, but not oily. And it is highly flavored, very citrussy. Definitely not overly sweet. Serious cake noms happening here. The frosting is lemon cream cheese, a perfect complement.

Very tasty overall, though heavy. The nutritional info says one cupcake has 320 calories, which is considerably less than a Sprinkle’s lemon, but it feels just as satisfying. I’m kinda over the gourmet cupcake, tbh, which is why you don’t see me yapping about them much anymore. This isn’t because I’ve hopped onto the next trend (idk what the next trend even is), but because I got a bit bored chasing after cupcakes, not that I’d turn one down if it magically appeared in front of me, and also… heartburn, bleh.

But it was fun to have one of these lemonades. OK FINE I HAD TWO. Geez.

[Written in 2016.]

~*~

Image is mine.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

Strawberry Goodbye

The last time I saw you,
We had strawberries and wine.
Golden hours slipped by
As lazy summer days
Acquiesced to autumn’s chill.
The earthy ripe sweetness
Grew sour on my tongue
While I tried to hold onto
Each fleeting moment,
Knowing it would be the last one.

~*~

Image is mine. Poetry form is free verse.

Written for dVerse Poetics.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

At The Duke’s Wedding [repost]

WARNING ~ SPOILERS ABOUND ~ CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

At The Duke’s Wedding is a collection of four novellas, all set at a grand old English estate during the week of festivities surrounding the wedding of the Duke of Wessex. Each novella has a different author.

1. That Rogue Jack by Maya Rodale. This story is incredibly, tediously stupid. Jack is a gorgeous moron who misplaces the heirloom wedding ring he picked up for the groom from a jeweler. Inexplicably, the bride-to-be requests great grand Aunt Whozis’ companion, Henrietta, to get moronic Jack to hand over the ring. They spend days sneaking around trying to find it because Jack, who is a moron, can’t remember where he put it. As they do this, they fall in love. That’s the plot.

2. I was going to stop reading after that first awful story, but decided that wasn’t fair to the other authors. Glad I continued. In P.S. I Love You (by Miranda Neville), the witty and poetic scarred-face Christian reluctantly agrees to write love letters to Rosanne for his boring but good-looking cousin Frank. Of course Chris falls in love with Rosanne because her letters are so charming, and she with him, though of course she thinks he’s Frank. When they all meet at the Duke’s place, complications ensue. Predictable, but actually good.

3. When I Met My Duchess by Caroline Linden.  This story is about the Duke himself, who is not some old gross gouty fellow but young and beefcakey, and how he falls for his betrothed’s hot and unconventional sister the moment she steps down from her carriage in front of his house. Liked it.

4. How Angela Got Her Rogue Back by Katharine Ashe. This story involves time-travel, which I don’t mind at all, if it makes some kind of sense. Even a little bit of sense will do. Modern-day Angela materializes at the Duke’s party 200 years earlier after reading a weird book and falling into a Michigan river. That was OK, but less so was the convoluted blackmail scheme she thwarts to save Viscount Studmuffin’s family. What really bugs the crap out of me though is when Angela ~poof~ vanishes again for no reason. I totally lost interest in the story right there. But I finished it and read the teaser for an upcoming story, which has the Duke’s little sister finding Angela’s cell phone…

Onward!

~*~

Image from Lovethispic.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

Too Soon, Too Late [mlm]

Too soon for snow, too late for rain,
Frozen dew veils your heart’s domain.
If only I had met you in the summer sun,
When days were long and love was young,
We might have stood a chance to feel
Something golden, something real.
Instead, I wait for cold dark night
To hide my tears from pity’s sight.

~*~
Image credit to Angela Kelly.
Poetry form: rhyming couplets.
Written for MLM’s Photo Challenge.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

The Friendship Café [repost]

Stan was starving. It had been half a day since he’d passed a rest stop, and he had long since run out of his stash of trail mix. Plus, his VW bug was now dangerously low on gas. As he daydreamed of a sumptuous bowl of lovely fettuccine noodles drenched with Alfredo sauce and topped with fresh seafood, he saw a sign for “Gas & Eats.”

That would have to suffice. Stan exited the dark, desert highway and proceeded along the bumpy unpaved road until he came to a common self-service gas station with a diner behind it. After filling his tank, Stan moseyed over to the restaurant, noting with pleasure the scent of garlic and onions starting to dominate the air. Mmm!

“Welcome to the Friendship Café!” a beautiful brunette greeted him as he walked through the door. An equally beautiful redhead stood by her side. “I’m Maori and this is Shayla. We love to make new friends for dinner.”

“Me too,” Stan said. “I’m Stan, and I’m starving. What’s on the menu!”

“You!” Shayla giggled. “Just take off your clothes in the back room, put on the light robe, and we’ll be all set to begin.”

“Wow, this is friendly!” Stan went in the back to disrobe. What a fun place he’d found. Dinner and a threesome, woohoo!

Maori and Shayla sharpened their knives in the kitchen as the water began to boil under the large pot. Stan looked so good, and the girls were very very hungry.

~*~

Written for Fandango’s Flash Fiction Challenge.

Image credit to Bruno Aquirre at Unsplash.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

The Paperboy [fss]

At a time when most people were struggling for wealth and/or glory, Bob felt content with his quiet life and his paper route. He subsisted on beans and toast, while others dined upon steak and champagne. When that rich food and decadent lifestyle began to kill them, Bob stayed slim and fit. He would never crow about his good health however as death and despair hovered over the wealthy, for he knew he could get hit by a truck tomorrow. He greeted each day with a smile in fascination over simple things like flowers and butterflies, never troubling himself to read the articles in the news he brought to others.

“Paperboy arrested for poisoning his customers!”

~*~

Image from Pexels.

Written for Fandango’s Story Starter and Go Dog Go Café’s Tuesday Writing Prompt.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

Let’s Eat Grandma!

Today Dr. Tanya asks how we feel about grammar mistakes in Blogland.

I’ve mentioned many times that I am highly intolerant of mistakes in published books, whether spelling, grammar, tense, name mixups, etc. These errors especially irk me in books that are put out by an actual publishing house. It’s hard to proof your own work because you tend to skim, but houses have editors. Allegedly. I am much more tolerant of mistakes on blogs and in social media generally.

Unlike some, I consider texts, blog comments, and chats on Facebook to be conversation, not professional communication. I’m fine with folks who eschew capital letters and/or punctuation as long as the meaning is clear. Personally, I don’t bother with much punctuation in comments and chats, though I try to write in standard English on my blog nowadays. You may have noticed that I gave up the lolcat a while back.

If you’re going to write a short story on your blog, however, my expectations for proper English go up, and I will enjoy your writing more if I’m not pausing at mistakes. But if you’re simply opining, then I don’t really care.

Unless you use an apostrophe-plural. Then all bet’s are off. See what I did there? Hideous!

~*~

Image from SomeCards.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.